World No Tobacco Day

Overview of World No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day gives a platform to young people across the world, who are calling for the tobacco industry to stop targeting them with products that are harmful to their health.

The day is organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every 31 May.

This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and to protect future generations.

The Tobacco Industry – Developments

In the last 20-30 years, the tobacco industry has been diversifying into e-cigarettes, vapes and pouches, attempting to create new markets for its product. This is due to increased restrictions on cigarette sales, advertising bans and a general acceptance of the harm that smoking can do.

As a result of this diversification, the WHO are calling on governments to adopt policies to shield young consumers from what many see as the manipulative practices of tobacco and associated industries, including the relentless marketing of their products through social media and other video sources.

This is one of the reasons why there is greater impetus to publicise WNTD every year. Although the percentage of smokers is falling in all Western countries – and has done so for over 20 years – many teenagers and people in their 20’s now vape.

The Nicotine Problem

As well as being very addictive, nicotine is a poison, and nicotine-tainted water can be a major issue. Nicotine occurs naturally in tobacco and is an ingredient in many vapes and e-cigarettes.

Nicotine poisons water in a variety of ways:

1. In tobacco-farming areas nicotine and nicotine-based agrochemical products (neonicotinoids) as well as many other insecticides and herbicides can be found in the leachate and this makes groundwater need treatment before it can be used for human consumption or even agriculture. Nicotine will also persist for many years so even leachate from areas that formally farmed tobacco or were previously treated with neonicotinoids will need ongoing treatment.

2. Cigarette butts (which are not actually biodegradable) contain nicotine and inevitably many of these end up in groundwater and sewers.

3. More worryingly, higher levels of nicotine are beginning to be found in inflows to municipal wastewater treatment plants worldwide. This is due to the growing amount of discarded vapes as well as the production of vape liquid and its packaging.

For more info on nicotine water treatment, see this article on the Arvia Technology website.

Arvia and Nicotine Water Pollution

Nicotine is just one of the many chemical compounds that can be removed by Arvia’s proven water treatment technology. Our revolutionary Rosalox electrochemical treatment system can remove nicotine safely from water – without any ‘tip-ins’ of hazardous chemicals or by using excessively large amounts of electricity.

Nicotine is first adsorbed onto our patented Nyex™ Media and then reduced to water and gas (it’s simply vented away) using a low amperage electric current. This means energy consumption is optimised and operating costs are minimal. For a full explanation of the process, see this page on our site.

Additionally, Nyex reactors have no moving parts and can be deployed almost anywhere there’s power available, so retrofitting into an existing production line is easy.

In Arvia’s tests, a nicotine concentration of 33mg/l in water was easily reduced to just trace levels.

Water Re-use

Water that is tainted with nicotine is a resource wasted. And although we might think of water as an unlimited resource, it actually isn’t. There’s a finite amount of water in the world and climate change is making it increasingly difficult to distribute water to everyone who needs it.

So it makes sense to recycle as much as possible and Arvia’s patented water treatment technology can remove a multitude of poisonous compounds easily, obviating the need for expensive ‘legacy’ treatment or incineration. For the full list, take a look at our website.

Why World No Tobacco Day is Important

As we mark WNTD, let’s consider for a moment that it’s not only nicotine that is poisoning our water. In the last 50 years, all manner of pollutants and manufactured compounds like PFAS are contaminating our environment.

We all need to take a step back and consider what we are doing to the Earth for the sake of future generations.

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Our wastewater treatment expertise

Our water technology can be used to treat a variety of water treatment applications. Once we understand the nature of your wastewater and your final water quality target, our water treatment specialists can make recommendations as to how best to treat your water. Take a look at some of the Nyex applications here:

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